“According to this logic, the entire territory of the United States should belong to Great Britain.” “Trump said that Crimea is Russian, because people speak Russian,” said Elena Petukhova of Molfar, a Kyiv-based business intelligence firm, who called it an “absolutely pro-Kremlin” view. One of his 2016 campaign aides falsely claimed that “Russia did not seize Crimea.” Within weeks, Trump praised Putin for how he handled the takeover of Crimea and predicted that “the rest of Ukraine will fall … fairly quickly.” Echoing Kremlin propaganda, Trump said in a TV interview that the Crimean people “would rather be with Russia,” a position he also pushed in private. Russian troops soon invaded the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, initiating the armed conflict that escalated this year. Trump took Russia’s side when the conflict beganĪ popular revolution in 2014 ousted the pro-Russia regime in Kyiv, which was led by President Viktor Yanukovych, and replaced it with a Western-leaning government. Here are four things to remember about Trump, Ukraine and Putin. “One of the key reasons Putin probably felt comfortable launching the invasion of Ukraine was the extent to which the West has been weakened and destabilized, and democracy undermined, and political divisions sown, in the five years since he attacked our election in 2016,” said Garrett Graff, a historian and journalist with expertise in national security and Cold War issues. And even with Trump no longer in office, his impact lives on in the form of Putin-friendly commentary in conservative media and from some Republican lawmakers. It’s easy to forget that a few years ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wasn’t known for his steely wartime leadership, but for getting dragged by Trump into the US political scandal that led to Trump’s first impeachment.Įxperts say Trump’s actions weakened Ukraine, divided NATO, emboldened Putin and helped get us to where we are today. Nearly every step of the way, former President Donald Trump parroted Kremlin talking points, excused Russian aggression and sometimes even embraced it outright. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up tensions with the West for the better part of the last decade – he annexed Crimea, meddled in US elections, poisoned an ex-spy on British soil, and more. The Russian invasion of Ukraine didn’t just happen out of nowhere.
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